Chopp nixes tax plan for Husky Stadium

OLYMPIA – Speaker of the House Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, just put an end to the uproar about authorizing taxes to pay for half of a proposed $300 million renovation to Husky Stadium.

Chopp said Thursday his statements last week about being open to the idea had been blown out of proportion.

“All I said, at the request of former Gov. (Dan) Evans was that I’d take a look at the proposal,” he said. “I made it clear that we are not talking about state tax dollars for that project because all that would do is take money away from education – including higher education.”

“That’s the extent of it,” he said. “In fact since then no House member, and nobody else for that matter in terms of the Legislature, has come to me and asked to support the project. That’s sends a pretty strong message.”

Chopp said he had no plans to push for enabling legislation that would extend the some of the stadium taxes set up to pay for the King Dome, Safeco Field and Qwest Field.

“I just said to Gov. Evans that I’d consider it, so I asked people to consider it. Nobody’s come to me ask for support for it.”

For the Record, this is what Chopp actually said last week:

“I’m open to talking to the university about it because it’s obviously a public facility,” Chopp said. “It can be used for a lot more than just Husky football. They are talking about a series of highschool football games. If you have ever been to Memorial Stadium in Seattle, it’s in pretty bad shape.

“I’m willing to talk about it with them,” he said. “It’s not professional, it’s not for profit and the players make nothing.”

Compared to the Sonics, the University is a more sympathetic cause. “By light years,” Chopp said. “That’s a long ways.”

Safety issues are also in play, Chopp noted.

“There are several different revenue streams that we are looking at,” he said. “One of them would just be some local thing that we would authorize, so that’s a possibility.”

“I’m not likely to support money coming out of the state general fund for it unless it’s seeen in context of all the other capital projects that we have to do for higher education,” he said. “The Univesity of Washington has done quite well with the capitol budget process over the last ten years. So really, is this a priority compared to those other needs?”